For EMI, New Space Reflects Changing Times
The publishing arm of EMI Group wanted to bring its employees under one roof and at the same time take a fresh look at its role in the music business
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The space, a former textiles warehouse, is filled with light and glass, to promote a sense of transparency throughout every part of the business.
Low partitions between cubicles are intended to foster open communication.
The "Music Spa" is a research space where clients looking for music for advertising or film projects can comb through EMI Music Publishing's extensive back catalog.
The first thing that visitors to EMI Music Publishing see when they exit the elevators (left) is a huge Steinway grand piano. There's also an area for visitors and employees to congregate.
Roger Faxon had a dilemma. As chief executive officer and chairman of EMI Music Publishing , he saw his workforce suffering something of a collective identity crisis. It's no secret that the music industry is in a state of turmoil (BusinessWeek.com, 10/10/07), but the uncertainties and lack of a clear path ahead were starting to hurt the morale and efficiency of his team.
Worse, his staff was dispersed around New York City, with the executives and creative team in one office and support staff in a different building two blocks away. With a staff of hundreds of employees, this had created an environment that was less than cohesive, with miscommunications and confusion becoming a serious problem.
For Faxon, at least one part of the solution seemed clear: He had to unite his workforce—and he had to convey to them the importance of the music publishing business, which he felt had become too subservient to its record label partners. "Our industry had become very passive, I think largely because of the great success of the record industry. That made it comfortable," he says. "But the world has changed. We have to reassert ourselves into that world, and become a more vital, vibrant business."
